Andrew Zimmern first had this dish at a café in Penang, Malaysia. It wasn't until he showed up with his crew that he could figure out every ingredient in the dish from the chef. While this version is made with chicken, the sauce goes great with any type of protein, including lobster, pork chops, quail and lamb chops. The most surprising ingredient? Simply Heinz ketchup. "The stuff is awesome and very traditional in many parts of southern Asia, where tomato-vinegar-sugar sauces have been used for centuries," says Zimmern.

This recipe for arancini—fried risotto balls—comes from Renato Poliafito, who got it from his Sicilian cousin Emanuele Sanfilippo. "Renato is obsessed with arancini," says Matt Lewis, "especially this version with toasted pistachios." These arancini are the size of tangerines, filled with creamy, cheesy rice, studded with nuts and green peas and encased in a great crunchy crust.

At her restaurant, Brasa, pork-loving chef Tamara Murphy makes her own chorizo for the excellent paella on her menu. As for the seafood in the dish, she breaks with tradition by sautéing the shrimp and steaming the mussels and clams before adding them to the paella during the last few minutes of cooking; this keeps the seafood moist and delicious.

In Germany’s Pfalz region, cooks braise sauerkraut with onions, apples, seasonings, a touch of sugar and a little of the region’s Riesling wine, creating an addictive accompaniment for juicy weisswurst or bratwurst.

Sweet, tart and strong, the caipirinha is mixed with the Brazilian spirit cachaça. Cachaça is similar to rum but made from sugarcane rather than molasses. "It’s more sophisticated than rum because it’s more pure," says Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, patriotically.

Alison Attenborough and Jamie Kimm always make borscht around the holidays. One year, they had roasted fennel left over after a day of food styling and decided to add it to the soup pot; they've been making borscht with fennel ever since. They like their soup really sweet and sour, but you can adjust the vinegar and honey to your taste.

These sweet-salty shrimp go perfectly with a white wine full of tropical fruit and a touch of spice—which is what winemakers create by blending Gewürztraminer and Riesling. Look for one from South Australia.

At Trummer’s on Main in Clifton, Virginia, Clayton Miller makes a highly seasoned, Indian-inflected tomato jam with ginger, cinnamon, cumin and cayenne. It’s a terrific accompaniment to his hush puppies—cheekily nicknamed "shut-your-piehole puppies" by the cooks in his kitchen.

When making most stews, cooks typically brown the meat before braising it; here, Ethan Stowell skips that step, which simplifies the Moroccan recipe and gives the lamb a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The dish is vibrantly flavored with ginger, cumin, coriander, olives and lemon; the broth is delicious over couscous.

This pairing of chopped lamb with a mashed-potato topping is one of the most beloved British classics. Chef Tom Aikens infuses milk and cream with fresh herbs before folding them into the potatoes to make the dish especially luxurious.

"I look forward to going to Sicily for many reasons," says Frank Castronovo of his biannual trip to southern Italy. "One of them is because I’m amazed at how many times Frank [Falcinelli] can order linguine con vongole." Their exquisite, supersimple version is packed with garlic and a judicious amount of crushed red pepper. If you prefer, shell the clams before tossing them with their juices in the pasta.

Hot Bread Kitchen’s first employee, Elidia Ramos, taught her fellow bakers how to make gorditas, a favorite Mexico City street food. Crisp on the outside and soft within, these savory corn cakes are a great base for all types of toppings, from pulled pork to shredded chicken. For a more luscious gordita, fry the dough in lard or butter instead of oil.

After visiting New York City’s top ramen spots (including Ippudo NY, Sapporo and Momofuku Noodle Bar), Grace Parisi created her dream ramen with a pork-and-chicken-based broth that gets extra depth of flavor from kombu (seaweed) and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce).

Rossejat de fideos, a traditional seafood dish of Spain's Catalonia region, resembles paella but instead of rice, it calls for fideos, fine vermicelli-like pasta. Here, the pasta browns in hot oil until toasty, then cooks slowly in a deliciously rich stock, made with the lobster shells, soaking up all the flavor.

This indulgent first course marries three of Italy’s best ingredients: egg pasta, winter truffles and Robiola Rocchetta, a creamy cheese from northern Italy, which forms the base for an incredibly rich sauce.

This dish from Uxua hotel chef Aladim Alves traces its roots to the 1970s, when the beaches of Trancoso, Brazil, were a favorite hippie destination. It combines richly flavored Bahian seafood with healthy whole-grain black rice.

Mexican posole is typically a thick, hearty soup made with hominy (chewy dried corn kernels with the hull and germ removed). For his version, Ethan Stowell slow-simmers chunks of pork butt in water with onion and garlic to create a dish that's appealingly brothy. He likes to make it with chicharrones (fried pork rinds) and pig's feet, hard-to-find ingredients that are omitted in the recipe here. The array of fun, potently flavorful condiments—jalapeño, onion, cilantro and lime wedges—is key to the dish.

Ana Sortun’s pastry chef, Maura Kilpatrick, adds cinnamon and cocoa nibs to the syrup that soaks her chocolate baklava. This baklava is fabulous even with a basic honey syrup; no need for cocoa nibs and cinnamon.